29 Jul 2011

Life sentences for body in garage murderers

10:02 pm on 29 July 2011

The parents of the man murdered by fellow drug dealers with hammers, and dumped in a New Plymouth garage, say they hate his killers and hope they rot in hell.

Dean Browne, 38, was bludgeoned to death in a flat in Oriental Parade in Wellington on 21 January last year before his body was taken to New Plymouth.

The two men found guilty of murdering Browne with hammer blows and dumping his body in a garage have been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.

Karl Nuku, 19, killed Dean Browne with blows to the head on the instructions of Mikail Pandey-Johnson, the leader of a drug dealing group calling themselves the Killer Clown Fiends.

Although Pandey-Johnson, 24, wasn't present at the killing, the judge found him equally culpable with Nuku and also part of the group.

Dean Browne's mother and stepfather, Fay and Ron Bishop, say they are satisfied with the sentence.

But they say they are angry at the killers' lack of remorse - especially from Nuku, who fought back smiles throughout the trial and sentencing.

Fay Bishop says he sniggered and waved every day in and out of the court for six weeks.

She told the court she would never get over the viscous, depraved killing of her son.